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((So I didn’t check off everything on my finishing list yesterday. But because of the things I did do… I walked into the living room this morning, and felt like I could finally breathe in there. Thanks to my newly freed space.))

Be in action… is not necessarily how it sounds. I don’t plan to be a hyper productive, task oriented ball of constantly moving energy today.

I’m reading this book by Osho called “Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within” (Insights for a New Way of Living). I love this way of looking at creativity, because it’s not talking about just creativity in making art… but in living life. In the first chapter, he makes a distinction between action and activity. It rings so true for me and I know I’ve written about something similar before here.

He says that activity is compulsive. Has almost a mindless, thoughtless quality to it. Where you move from task to task, event to event, activity to activity without premeditation. This includes productive things, this includes “relaxing” things. For instance; going from putting the baby down for a nap, to warming up soup, to eating & writing simultaneously, to watching a show, to making tea… one right after the other, sometimes multiple things at one time. Not really giving each activity your full attention because you’re thinking of what’s going to come next. As if remaining in activity is more important than the activity itself.

But in action, action arises out of a need. You are hungry, so you eat. Your body aches, so you stretch. You notice that the plants need watering, so you grab the hose. You feel the urge to draw… so you do. Action has a spontaneity and a thoughtfulness to it, rather than a compulsiveness. So that’s my intention today. To remain in action. It’s only 8:30am… and it’s already causing me a little anxiety to be stripped of activity for the sake of activity. Interesting, huh?

I had many variations of today’s intention before I settled on breathe.

After the luxurious slowing down of yesterday’s tone, I had thoughts of being proactive as a potential intention, a little counter balance. But when I woke up this morning, 25 minutes before a doctor’s appointment, with a baby to feed, change and get dressed, as well as myself… I quickly decided be flexible was a more appropriate intention.

But of course, after that followed a tired, cranky baby, and my husband who needed the car for a meeting, throwing a kink into my errand running plans for the day. And by noon… I found myself lecturing myself internally through gritted teeth and shallow breaths… “Be flexible! Be flexible!”

That wasn’t going to improve my day in any way, shape or form.

So I took a cue from my attempted flexibility, and changed my intention.

What was the first thing I needed to do in order to try and approach the day with the flexibility it seemed to be asking of me…

Breathe.

So I’ve been adjusting my plans, working my errands around the times I had the car, and the places I could walk. I’ve been trying to keep tuned in to the little one’s needs. And whenever I start to feel frazzled or frantic…

I take a breath.

and then sometimes, I take another breath.

And another if necessary.

Until I’m no longer gritting my teeth.

And this, I discovered, has served me far better today than any more ambitious attitude I may have tried setting for myself.